Bloomfire Releases Collaboration Tool for LinkedIn Groups

A more collaborative LinkedIn Group. That’s the intention of a new tool announced today by Bloomfire.

Bloomfire for LinkedIn Groups enables owners and members of LinkedIn Groups to create a media-capable collaborative community. Bloomfire CEO Craig Malloy said in a statement that the free app “expands how we communicate in LinkedIn so we can share knowledge by showing instead of just telling or linking to outside content.”

Integrating Collaboration

Functionalities in the tool include the ability to upload and share any file type, such as videos, screencasts, images or documents, and to record and upload videos. Group attendees can also record screencasts, share presentations with attached slide decks, package related content into a playlist-like series, and search and retrieve previously uploaded content.

Dave McAnn, the company’s CTO, told news media that, with the LinkedIn Groups app, a LinkedIn Group owner “continues to own content moderation in their Bloomfire as they have in their LinkedIn Group, making the integration and experience as seamless as possible.”

The new tool is the first that Bloomfire has in mind for integrating its collaborative software into popular professional and workplace applications. The aim is to allow users to share knowledge in applications where work already takes place, rather than have to switch into such apps as a centralized content management system or a learning management system.

Getting Knowledge, Giving Knowledge

Bloomfire’s app -- a “Bloomfire,” as the company calls it -- is designed to give “finger-tip access” to knowledge, and to facilitate sharing between those who have specific knowledge and those who need it.

The Bloomfire tool utilizes key features of the company’s core knowledge sharing app. The full app also provides peer-to-peer social learning, in which answers to questions can range from text to multimedia demos.

The main app also features the capability to print presentation-ready usage reports, browse one’s Bloomfire home page to identify the most recent and popular shared content, and organize content by topics and keyword tags. And there's the ability to join the company’s Membership Subscription and get access to its billing engine, so that clients could be charged to be share valuable content as part of a community.